The FCC Wireline Bureau has rejected a petition by CRC Communications asking for a waiver of agency rules about Connect America Fund Phase II noncompliance. In a docket 10-90 order Friday, the bureau said that while CRC argued that its subcontractor, WiValley, going out of business made it unable to fulfill its CAF Phase II carrier obligations, CRC didn't explain how it failed to notice it wasn't actually offering service meeting FCC requirements despite certifying that it was. CRC will be subject to CAF Phase II noncompliance measures if it doesn't serve its required number of locations, the bureau said.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr pushed back against claims that Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., made last month about irregularities in the commission’s process for approving Skydance’s $8 billion purchase of Paramount Global (see 2508190053). “There has been a lot of misinformation spread about the FCC’s review of this transaction,” Carr said in a letter to Schiff dated Aug. 25 and posted Thursday. “Contrary to your suggestions, the FCC ran a standard review process for this transaction, and I am proud of the agency’s work.”
With NTIA in the 90-day curing stage for states that submitted their revised final BEAD proposals by the Sept. 4 deadline, some broadband access advocates are claiming that the agency is requiring states to conduct another "Best and Final Offer" round based on price caps. They said a spreadsheet obtained by BroadbandMarketer's Doug Adams containing excessive cost thresholds suggests that NTIA will require states to reengage with subgrantees with overly high project costs.
Michael Powell is leaving NCTA on a high note, with net neutrality -- an issue he has dealt with and opposed for decades -- seemingly dead. "It was going to be really dispiriting to me if I retired, and we were now in a Title II environment, and I'm super excited that no, I can say that we slayed that dragon," the group's outgoing leader told us.
With EchoStar selling spectrum to AT&T and SpaceX that was key to its terrestrial mobile plans, the company's focus will be on a hybrid mobile virtual network operator model for its Boost Mobile business, executives said this morning at World Space Business Week in Paris. Under that hybrid MVNO model, Boost will use SpaceX direct-to-device service and AT&T mobile service, paired with Boost's cloud-based core network, CEO Hamid Akhavan said.
Despite continuing questions about how quickly major wireless providers really want the next major spectrum auction, the FCC is under the gun to hold an upper C-band auction in just two years. But industry experts told us that, as was said of the baseball field in 1989’s Field of Dreams, if the FCC holds an auction the carriers will come.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr names Allison Howell, a former FCC intern, as a law clerk in his office … Eduardo Ruiz Sanchez, Televisa, joins the North American Broadcasters Association board … Satellite telecommunications provider Kepler Communications taps Beau Jarvis, ex-Phase Four, as chief revenue officer, a new position.
Eutelsat wants to raise $1.76 billion, which will affect its ownership and in turn require a transfer of its licenses, it told the FCC Space Bureau on Wednesday. In applications covering its OneWeb and Satelites Mexicanos subsidiaries that have U.S. market access, Eutelsat said the proposed fundraising transaction would see the French government increase its share of capital to 29.65%, up from 13.59%. It said other key shareholders will also participate, and the transaction will give France three board seats, compared with the one it has now. The additional financing will let Eutelsat accelerate its investment in existing low earth orbit projects and new initiatives, it said.
Paramount Skydance will reportedly make a bid to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery, according to a Wall Street Journal article Thursday. The deal would include all the company’s cable networks, including CNN and HBO, the article said. Because Warner Bros. doesn’t own broadcast stations, the deal likely wouldn’t require FCC approval, communications attorneys told us. However, if it's consummated, it could make it easier for FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to apply pressure to a wider swath of media through the agency's open news distortion proceeding. Paramount recently hired a news ombudsman to appease the FCC (see 2509090065). Carr has said the agency will be monitoring Skydance Paramount’s commitments against diversity initiatives and its news policies, and he has targeted large media companies over their smaller broadcast divisions in the past (see 2412270039). It’s not yet clear how such a combination would fare at the DOJ, attorneys told us.
The FCC unanimously approved a $40,000 forfeiture against Wilner Baptiste for operating a pirate radio station in Spring Valley, New York. Baptiste operated “M-One Radio Live,” also known as “M-One Live Radio," according to the forfeiture order. Enforcement Bureau field agents traced Baptiste’s signal in February and June 2024, and the FCC issued a notice of apparent liability against him in September 2024 (see 2409260026).